Can I get a WITNESS?

What does a Christmas witness look like?

Specifically what does it look like this Christmas 2008?

It comes down to the choices that we make.

There is little doubt that there is much bad news abroad. There is a tendency to pull back, to make sure that me and mine are taken care of, but we are a people called to bring good news to the oppressed and to bind up the broken hearted.

Maybe you feel that puts you in a bind.

You have people that you want to remember during this season and there is only so much to go around.
How can we reach out to those oppressed and broken hearted and still remember those close to us?
I suggest to you, that we can remember those we love, with gifts to those who need so much.

Give and witness to the love of Christ and the difference it has made in your life at the same time.

In your honor we have given a family in Africa a goat.
In your honor we have purchased 20 meals for Mobil Loaves and Fishes.
In your honor we supported a chldren’s care facilty or battered women’s shelter.
In your honor we gave gifts to children who otherwise would have received none.
In your honor we have given manna bags to people on the street.

Give your children and grand children something special.

Bring them to help at the homeless breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. You can email brunch@fumcaustin.org to let us know you are coming.

When we choose to be generous to those beyond our circle of friends and relatives, when we reach out to the stranger and the needy, we are witnesses to the power of the Christ in our lives.

Further than that, we can be peacemakers in a world that is much more prone to argument and discord.

As times get harder it will become easier and easier to be angrier and angrier.

It will be easy in the midst of our frustration to blame others, to separate ourselves.

But we are witnesses to Christmas

We are witnesses to the promise of the angels, peace on earth and good will to all people

For we soon will celebrate again a special day, and we will hear again the announcement, “For unto you is born this day a Savior who is Christ the Lord".
WE will be reminded again of that new life which potentially brings new life not only to us but to the whole world.

And the world needs a witness to that.